Three Maharashtra ministers support Deshmukh

Published: Thursday, September 13, 2007, 20:38 [IST]

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Mumbai, Sept 13 (UNI) Three senior Maharashtra ministers today came out in support of beleaguered Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who has been criticised for reportedly making derogatory references on farmers, saying the remarks were twisted out of context by the opposition.

State Agriculture minister Balasaheb Thorat, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Harshwardhan Patil and Education Minister Vasant Purke told reporters here that the remarks made by Mr Deshmukh at a cotton conference at Akola recently were taken out of context by the opposition to make a issue out of it.

They said Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, who had made some remarks about Mr Deshmukh's speech at the conference, might have done the same without proper information.

However, Mr Rane clarified that he had immediately dashed off a letter to Union Textile minister Mr Shankarsinh Vaghela for his reported comments at the same conference that Vidarbha farmers were lazy. However, Mr Vaghela denied having made the remarks.

He also questioned the right of the three ministers to make any references about him on the issue.